India reports 39,796 COVID-19 cases, 723 deaths in 24 hours

With 39,796 cases, the overall tally of infections has surged to 30,584,872 while the toll has climbed to 4,02,758.

With 42,352 COVID-19 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate has improved to 97.11% while the active caseload has declined to 4,82,071.

Under the national vaccination drive, the country has so far administered 35.28 doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

Last week, Hyderabad-based biotechnology company Bharat Biotech claimed its anti-COVID-19 vaccine, named Covaxin, is overall 77.8% effective against the deadly virus.

Bharat Biotech made the claim in the phase three clinical trial data of the vaccine.

The company has further claimed Covaxin is 93.4% effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19 cases, 63.6% against asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 65.2% against the Delta variant.

Dr Ambrish Mithal, the chairman and head of endocrinology and diabetes department at Max Healthcare, has stressed on the need to vaccinate people at a rapid rate to fight the virus, at a time the country is staring at the third wave.

"The faster we can vaccinate the better of we are, if the virus doesn’t mutate again and come out with some nasty new form which is resistant to the previous infection antibodies and not covered by the vaccine, if that doesn't happen then things would be under control, but if another variant takes over, like the delta plus then of course no one can predict." Dr. Mithal said.